Grate structure



March 31 1942. w, u so 2,278,316 7 GRATE STRUCTURE a i Fi led March 22, 1940 12 Sheets-Sheet 1 J. w; HULSON GRATE STRUCTURE Filed March 22, 1940 March 3 1, 1942.

2' Sheets-Sheet 2 v Jo l l n LU Hu/son I WITNESS finger to removal flue slagging. Moreover, tions, there has been danger of the locking finger Patented Mar-I 31, 1942 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE John w; mm, Keokuk. Iowa; assignor to liaison Grate Company, Keokuk, Iowa Application March 2:, 1940, Serial No. 325,440 p .1 Claim. (Cl.126- 180)- The invention relates to grate structures of the general type in which pluralities of fingers are mounted on carrier bars, the fingers being removably held on the bars ;byxin'terlocking means. In such grateait is common practice to successively place the fingers on the bar at one point, and to slide proper locked-on positions, applied serving to prevent the last finger to he movement of .any of th others to removal position until said lastapplied finger is released and removed. With such arrangement, in order that the lastapplied finger shall be-movable from locked-on position to removal position, it has heretofore beenneces- ,sary that it have quite an amount of movement longitudinally of the bar, and in orderto 'permit this, it has beenrequired that the various fingers be so spacedapart that abnormal crowd ing of them together would provide the space necessary for said movement of said lastrapplied position,- and the rather wide finger spacing has had a tendency to permit the fingers to group themselves instead of remaining uniformly distributed throughout the length of the-bar, resulting in improper distribution of draftair and non-uniform elimination o'f ash. In tuyere-type grates in which the draft air is baflied to prevent stack loss, cinder cutting and slagging of fines, the prior finger spacing has increased the straight draft area of the grates, and

of said stack loss. cinder cutting and with prior construcger there is (last finger applied) working up from the finger carrying bar under vibration, particularly when shaking the grates. The present invention, however, aims to means for the fingers and bar which will prevent accidental detachment of the locking finger and will require very little movement of the last-applied finger longitudinally of the bar when it is .to be removed and will consequently permit close spacing of the fingers, to the extent of placing them substantially in contact with each other, thereby overcoming prior difllculties.

With the above in view, the invention resides in the novel subject matter hereinafter described and claimed, description being accomplished by reference to the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a portion of a I carrier bar and a number of the fingers thereon, showing the normal relation of fingers and bar.

Figure 2 is a view similar to Fig. l but showing provide an improved interlocking said fingers; into their most of room i921 removal of'the first or key finger.

Figures 3 and 4 are views similar to Figs. 1 and 2 'ut showing the movements imparted to the 'first or key" finger-in order to remove same.

- be made within the scope of the invention as claimed.

The fingers are bar at H, and while I have shown said fingers providedwith tuyeres ID for draft air, the present invention is not concerned with the finger construction except insofar as that construction acts to removablvmount the fingers on the car- 'the more such area is increased, the more danrler bar;

The preferred cross-sectional shape of the carrier bar II is that of a heavy squat I-beam with the .lowerlateral ribs l2 thereof extending uninterruptedly from end to end of the bar. At the top oi this bar, however, instead of providing ribs extending continuously from end to end of said bar, I provide each side of the latter with two ribs l3 and having their inner extremities spaced apart to provide the spaces 15 which permit easyremoval and application of the fingers N. The rib i3 is preferably very short and integrally joined at its outer end to one of the vertical finger stop flanges l6 and trunnion I'I, while the rib l4 extends from the space 15 to the opposite end of the carrier bar II. The inner extremity 18 of therib I4 is preferably vertical but the inner extremity of the rib I3 is of angular form as shown more particularly in Figs.

' 4 and 7, the upper portion is of this rib extremity being slanted upwardly away from the other rib extremity I8, and the lower portion 20 of the rib extremity in question being slanted downwardly away from said extremity i8.

In the present showing, each finger H1 is provided with a hub 2| under its head portion 22, and with vertical webs 23 connecting said hub and head portions, each hub being of a width (measured longitudinally of the bar I l) somewhat less than the width of said head portion. Each hub rests on the bar H and is provided with a downwardly open notch 24 receiving said bar, the opposed side walls of the notch being provided with inwardly projecting lugs 25. These lugs fingers crowded together, making shown at I0, and the carrier 25 of the various fingers l normally underlie the ribs I3 and I4 and thus prevent direct lifting of any of the fingers from the carrier bar I I. At this time, one of the endmost fingers ID has its lugs 25 hooked under the short ribs I3 and has its hub 2| disposed substantially in contact with the stop flange I6 as shown in Fig. 1. Portions of the lugs of this endmost finger of course project under portions of the notches l and the same is true of the lugs of the next adjacent finger, all of the fingers being then substantially in contact with each other. The fingers in these relative positions are firmly locked on the carrier bar with no danger of even those adjacent the spaces [5 becoming accidentally detached.

Before any of the fingers can be detached from the carrier bar, it is necessary that all of said fingers, except the one endmost finger engaged with the ribs l3, be crowded together toward the end of the bar opposite the spaces l5. This will leave a slight space 26 (Fig; 2) between said one endmost finger and the rest of the fingers, allowing said endmost finger to be slid toward the others and then tilted as seen in Fig. 4, alining its lugs 25 with the spaces l5 and thus permitting lifting of the finger from the carrier bar. Then, the other fingers may be successively slid to the spaces l5 and vertically lifted from the bar. Dueto the bevels I9 and 20 on the inner extremities of the ribs l3, only a very small space 26 is required, one quarter of an inch being sufficient in most instances. This space, after all of the fingers are applied to the bar, is of course distributed throughout the length of the latter, and thevarious fingers are, therefore, substantially in contact with each other for effective air control and ash elimination. Moreover, the fingers have no tendency to group themselves but re main uniformly distributed throughout the length of the carrier bar.

It willbe seen from the foregoing that novel provision has been made for permitting easy removal and application of theflngers to the bar, for effectively interlocking the fingers with the bar, and for permitting easy manipulation of the last-applied or first-removed finger as required, without the necessity of making such provision that the various fingers must be rather extensively spaced with danger of grouping themselves upon the bar.

While preferred details have been disclosed and each side of the carrier bar II has been provided with two ribs l3 and II, it will be obvious that said ribs at each side of said bar being disposed at one endof the bar and being very short, the other'of said ribs at each side of said bar being relatively long, and a plurality of fingers having trivially spaced fire-supporting heads and downwardly projecting portions nearly as wide as said heads, said downwardly projecting portions being spaced apart longitudinally of said bar and having notches receiving the upper portion of the bar, the lower end of one of said downwardly-projecting portions having lugs" underlying thefull length of said short ribs'and substantially half the length of said spacesbetween the ribs, -the lower ends ofthe rest of said downwardly-projecting portions having lugs underlying said long ribs and part of the'length of said spaces between the ribs, the various lugs normally preventing direct lifting of the fingers-from the bar, the inner extremities of said short ribs each having an upper bevel slanted upwardly away from the opposite extremity of the adjacent'long rib and also having a lower bevel slanted downwardly away from said opposite extremity of saidadjacent long rib, said lower bevels permitting the-lugs of one of said fingers to clear said short ribs and underlie said spaces between the ribs whensaid one finger is inwardly slid slightly and manually rocked about the outer upper corner of its notch after crowding the rest 'of the fingers together, said upper bevels then permitting-said lugsdf said one finger to pass through .said spaces between the long and short ribs as said one finger is lifted, the whole permitting removal of said one finger-with only trivial normal spacing of the various fingers.

' JOHN W. HULSON. 

